She had missed her Olympic Games in Beijing, and in particular the giant, falling in the second run. Tessa Worley won this Sunday that of Lenzerheide, in Switzerland. The 32-year-old Frenchwoman won her 16th World Cup victory, her second this season, ahead of Italian Olympic vice-champion Federica Brignone (29 hundredths) and Swedish Olympic champion Sara Hector (31 hundredths).
Third after the first heat, Worley was able to tame the terrible starting wall in the second heat (2nd time) to win for the second time in the Graubünden resort after 2018. “I’m super happy, it was a great daytime. I felt confident, I wanted to attack. I didn’t ask myself any questions, it was 100% attack, I knew I was fast, it paid off,” she said.
One of the best giantists in history
It is already the fourth podium of the winter for the double world champion in the specialty (2013 and 2017), which amounts to 55 points behind Sara Hector in the giant’s classification. There are two races left in the specialty before the end of the season. With 16 giant victories in her career, Worley becomes the 2nd most successful skier in the history of the discipline, tied with the Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll, behind the Swiss Vreni Schneider (20).
The weekend is perfect for the French women’s team, the day after Romane Miradoli’s Super-G victory, 13th on Sunday. It’s the first time since December 2009 (Worley as a giant, Sandrine Aubert in slalom in Are) that Les Bleues won two victories in the same World Cup weekend. Coralie Frasse-Sombet also took 9th place.
Fourth in the race, the American Mikaela Shiffrin takes a 117-point lead in the general classification over the Slovak Petra Vlhova, who came out in the first heat.